Heitor Villa-Lobos is universally recognized as the greatest and most
influential Brazilian composer. He was extremely prolific and his enormous
output includes works composed in every genre, ranging from educational pieces
for the piano to large dramatic works and film-scores.
Villa-Lobos's style resulted from an eclectic training and from the
assimilation of apparently conflicting influences, which he managed to absorb
on a self-taught basis rather than subjecting himself to any formal academic
instruction. These influences derive from three sources: the folk traditions of
Brazil, with their combination of African, Amerindian, and Portuguese elements,
the urban popular music of Rio de Janeiro and other cities, and the European
avant-garde at the beginning of the twentieth century. The ease and spontaneity
with which he mingled such diverse elements in his music have created some
difficulty for scholars, who are still baffled by his extremely free treatment
of form and thematic development.

The nationalistic element that pervades the music of Villa-Lobos is
undoubtedly its most distinctive and unifying feature, as he made clear in one
of his many speeches: "My work is the consequence of predestination, and
it is so vast because it is the fruit of an immense, ardent and generous
land".He travelled widely in Brazil, collecting folk-melodies and
noting down regional dances and chants which he later incorporated in his works
or used as raw material for ingenious rhythmic and harmonic experiment. These
travels in Brazil gave him a solid basis on which to build the main elements of
his nationalistic style, which he enriched by incorporating techniques derived
from urban popular music. In his youth, he was relentlessly drawn to the
bohemian atmosphere of Rio de Janeiro, and his contact with the popular
musicians of his time helped him develop his taste for improvisation and for a
flexible treatment of melody and rhythm. Other aspects of Villa-Lobos's early
apprenticeship were his broad knowledge of the technical capabilities of
musical instruments, several of which he played himself, and his acute sense of
tone-colour. His father trained him, from an early age, in the task of
distinguishing and responding to a variety of sounds, not only those produced
by musical instruments and their endless combinations, but also to sounds found
in the environment, noises from the city, and those produced by animals. This
practice established the basis for his rich and varied sound palette, which
became one of the hallmarks of his style.

In addition to the national roots of Villa-­Lobos's style, there was
also an international aspect to it, which sprang mostly from his years of study
in Paris between 1923-1930. His journey to Paris was mainly the result of
Arthur Rubinstein's efforts. Rubinstein met Villa-Lobos in Rio de Janeiro in
1918 and was deeply impressed by his music, as can be inferred from this note: "I became convinced that this
country [Brazil] has in this composer an eminent artist, equal to the greatest
composers in Europe. He has all the characteristics of a musical genius".
(A Notícia, 6/24/1920). Rubinstein quickly arranged for financial
support so that Villa-Lobos could go to Paris. There, he was received extremely
well, and concerts of his works were invariably successful. He was also in
close contact with the most prominent musicians and artists living in the city,
and it was during this time that his international reputation began to
establish itself. Villa-Lobos travelled to Paris following the start of the
Modernist Movement in Brazil, which was launched by a series of important and
ground-breaking artistic events in 1922, with Villa-Lobos himself as one of its
most prominent advocates. It might seem paradoxical, therefore, that at a time
when the avant-garde in Brazil were trying to free their artistic products from
outside influences, Villa-Lobos went to Europe, supposedly with the intention
of studying the European avant-garde. That was not so, however. According to
him, he went to Paris with the express purpose of showing himself and
displaying his accomplishments, which he undoubtedly succeeded in doing. These
circumstances help clarify the national ideal as cultivated by Villa-Lobos. The
universal appeal of his music is due to the fact that he transcended the
"exotic" quality of his folk material, by presenting it in a dazzling
and highly imaginative aural landscape. By doing so, he also established an
ideological foundation for the next generations of young Brazilian composers,
who were often divided between allegiance to their national roots and the
desire to embrace a more universal musical style.

Returning to Brazil in
1930, Villa-Lobos became extremely active as a promoter of musical education in
all levels of society, and he managed to engage the government in major
projects whose importance and later developments can still be felt today.
During this period he also travelled throughout the Americas, and the
increasing popularity of his works further contributed to the consolidation of
his status as a world-renowned composer. When he died in 1959, he had an array
of distinctive titles from cultural and political institutions in several
countries and his music was already deeply engraved in the minds of millions of
admirers.

Villa-Lobos was not a
virtuoso pianist (the cello was his primary instrument). This did not prevent
him, however, from devoting a large portion of his output to the piano. In
fact, about one fifth of his works (a little over two hundred compositions)
were written for piano solo. Most importantly, he showed a remarkable
understanding of the technical and expressive possibilities of the instrument.
This familiarity with the piano developed after his marriage in 1913 to Lucília
Guimarães, a virtuoso pianist who was especially fond of music by Schumann and
Chopin. This also helps explain why the influence of these two composers is so
readily identifiable in Villa-Lobos's style of piano-writing. An important
feature of Villa-Lobos's piano music is the wealth of themes derived from or
inspired by the world of childhood. It is interesting that Villa­-Lobos, having
no children of his own, used to refer to his works as his "children".
Moreover, in his works for piano solo he presents a microcosm of Brazilian life
and national traditions, similar to that achieved by Bartók in Hungary.

Before proceeding to
discuss the pieces in this programme, a word should be said about the use of
folk material in Villa-Lobos's work. Folk melodies and rhythms are used by
Villa-Lobos in two slightly different ways. First, there are those pieces in
which the folk material is quoted almost verbatim within a context of simple
and straightforward harmonic elaboration, such as in the collection of didactic
pieces Guia Prâtico (1932-1949); second, and perhaps more significantly,
there are more elaborate works in which the folk material is used as a basis
for complex structures, and the transformations to which it is subject are
carried on in such an original fashion that it is possible to speak of actual
re-creation. To this group belongs the collection of Cirandas (1926),
which will be discussed below.

Villa-Lobos composed
three collections of short pieces called Prole do Bebê, each one of them
devoted to a different aspect of a child's imagination. The first from 1918
portrays the different personalities and attributes of dolls, the second from
1921 is devoted to animals, and the third from 1916 depicts children's games.
This last series was never published, and its manuscript was lost. The first
series is by far the most famous of all, thanks to Arthur Rubinstein who
performed and recorded the piece, and immortalised the O Polichinelo (Punch
– No. 7) as a frequent encore. Each piece of the cycle has a double title, one
which indicates the material of which the doll is made, and another which
refers to their ethnicity and/or symbolism. The only exception is the O Polichinelo,
a character taken from the commedia dell'arte. Villa-Lobos's insight
into the world of childhood is reflected, among other things, by the names of
the dolls in this cycle. He uses the names in the diminutive, which in
Portuguese has a strong association with tenderness, familiarity and deep
intimacy. Furthermore, although at first glance the names of the dolls might
seem to express only their external appearance, they have the same meaning as
proper names and cannot, therefore, be translated without losing a substantial
part of their meaning. The use of diminutives is also found in the second
series, where the animals are referred to in the same tender, affectionate way.

Although one can
detect the presence of folk melodies and rhythms in A Prole do Bebê No. 1,
sometimes quoted in full as in the middle section of the O Polichinelo, the
folk influence in these pieces is less overt than in the Cirandos. The
most remarkable feature of the cycle, however, is the powerful psychological
insight into the "personalities" of each doll and the emulation of
their symbolic function. The musical language shows some influences derived
from French Impressionism, as in the harmonic progressions in A Pobrezinha (No.
6), or the colourful tone­-painting in the opening of Branquinha (No.
1). Elsewhere in the cycle, the piano-writing assumes an almost descriptive
character, as in the flying motions depicted in A Bruxa (No. 8), or the
tingling sound of porcelain in the high notes at the end of Branquinha
(No. 1) A Prole do Bebê No. 1 was Villa-Lobos's first major success, and
the only work he dedicated to his wife Lucília. It has been argued, in fact,
that Villa-Lobos's interest in the world of childhood as a source for
composition was prompted by his wife's performance of pieces such as Schumann's
Kinderszenen and Album for the Young. Whatever the case may be,
it should be pointed out that Villa-Lobos's collections belong to the same
tradition that embraces the similar works of Schumann, Debussy, and
Tchaikovsky. Rubinstein made a few changes when performing this cycle, which
eventually became common in subsequent performances: he rearranged the pieces
within the cycle, so as to end with the O Polichinelo, whose brilliance
captivated audiences worldwide. Furthermore, he added a repeat to this piece in
order to extend its duration, and also a glissando at the end. In this
recording, Villa-Lobos's original version of the cycle is maintained.

The Ciranda is
a round or circle dance originating in Portugal, where it was originally danced
by adults. As the tradition evolved in Brazil, it became increasingly a dance
for children, although in some regions of the country adults still participate.
The verse structure of the ciranda always calls for a child to go inside
the circle and sing alone, while the others continue to sing joining hands. By
the time Villa-Lobos began to work on the Cirandas, he was conceiving a
large-scale anthology of Brazilian folk-music, which eventually materialised in
the Guia Prâtico. In 1925 he composed a collection of nineteen short and
simple pieces using children's melodies, which he entitled Cirandinhas (the
diminutive of ciranda). In the following year, he completed the more
ambitious and far more successful set of sixteen Cirandas. This cycle is
one of the best examples of music inspired by children to be found in
Villa-Lobos's entire output. Each one of the Cirandas follows a unique
formal design. Villa-Lobos avoided any preconceived formal restraints,
preferring instead to let the material suggest its own particular treatment,
according to the individual structure of each melody. This is fundamental for
the Cirandas, because in these pieces the original folk material is
deeply imbedded in the musical fabric, so much so that the mood of the entire
piece is totally conditioned by the character of the original melody which is
used as its basis. In spite of the internal variety of the Cirandas, however,
the majority of them fall into a broad ABA pattern in which A constitutes newly
composed material used as both an introduction and an epilogue, and B uses the
folk-melody in a variety of elaborations. The introduction creates the
environment and the emotional atmosphere, as if setting the stage for the
appearance of the original melody, which many times is presented in sharp
contrast with the surrounding sections. The cycle abounds in a wonderful
variety of moods: pages of beautiful lyricism in No. 15, Que lindos olhos (‘What
Beautiful Eyes!’); rhythmic vitality and energy in No. 4, Ocravo
brigou com a rosa (‘The Carnation Fought With the Rose’), and in No. 8,
Vamos atrás da Serra, Calunga (‘Let's Go to the Mountain, Calunga’);
tragedy and anger in No. 11, Nesta rua, nesta rua (‘In this street, in
this street’); irony and humour in No. 5, Pobre cega (‘The Poor Blind
Woman’). All the melodies used in the Cirandas, except that for Ciranda
No. 13, A procura de uma agulhà (‘Looking for a Needle’), appear in
the Guia Prâtico, where the words were revised and adapted by Afrânio
Peixoto, a great pedagogue and a distinguished writer belonging to the Academy
of Letters of Brazil. The melody to Ciranda No. 15was used by
Villa-Lobos again in his Fifth String Quartet of 1931.

Hommage à Chopin was composed in 1949 to a commission from
UNESCO to commemorate the anniversary of Chopin's death. It was performed at
the Salle Gaveau in Paris, on 3rd October, 1949, as part of a programme consisting
of pieces commissioned from different composers for the same purpose. In this
piece Villa-Lobos gives free rein to his romanticism and lyricism. It opens
with the evocative Noturno, based on a languid melodic pattern presented
in the left hand, which in spite of its romantic nature still contains
typically Brazilian inflections. As it becomes increasingly charged with
dramatic pathos and anxious intensity, it moves towards its climax as the right
hand ushers in a downward cascade of double thirds. A middle section follows,
reminiscent of the dark moods found in much of Rachmaninov's music, before the
return of the original theme. A la Balada is arguably more successful in
emulating Chopin's style. Its theme suggests in its melodic contours the beginning
of Chopin's C sharp minor Waltz, Op. 64 No. 2. The development, however,
is typical Villa-Lobos, with a wandering pattern in the right hand, full of
chromatic motion mingled with double minor sixths and fifths. The ostinato character
of the left hand propels the piece forward, while the right hand is free to
elaborate on the different statements of the basic theme. The piece is written
in a highly idiomatic pianistic style, which is in fact the best homage that
could be paid to the most pianistically-minded of all composers.